tan(012) – Death Squads, Happy People, Work Whispers

Preamble: Been kind of light on the tangents, not that sh*t isn’t pissing me off, I guess I am just controlling what does and does not piss me off. Its a slow curve to equilibrium, but I’m gettin gthere.

Quiet Whispers

It always humors me when I am at work, and their will be two people talking regularly, then suddenly they creep away from you and their voices become softer and then non-coherent. This is done for one or two reasons; first reason would be that the conversation has suddenly changed to the topic of ‘you’ or someone that is close to ‘you’. The second reason would be is that they are talking about something that is ‘socially inappropriate’ at work. Either or, my whole thing is that I could really not be interested in what they have to say – I really don’t give a f**k. Even if you are talking about me or not, you are so irrelevant from my world that the best thing that I can say, well, what I WISH I could say, is by the great lyricist Styles P in a bar, “I don’t give a f–k who you are, so F–K who you are!”. Yup, that sums it up definitively.

Death Squads

The healthcare debate in the U.S. is very tense; as many people (as they should be) have passionate opinions on the current state of healthcare and where it should go. Obama’s plan is getting not so favorable reviews from both Democrats & Republicans alike, and at the Town Hall meetings, tempers are high – with many people shouting, pushing, and even fighting each other. The Republicans, along with their media outlet (Fox News) are pushing an interesting rhetoric, such as “Death Squads”, and “let’s take back our country”, and proclaiming that Obama and his goonies are socialists. Glenn Beck, the actor/news reporter (that was an intentional ‘/’ used to describe him) is even making arguments to compare the Obama administration to Nazi Germany. Below, are some funny and telling clips of how media, if not followed closely, can easily mislead and persuade a masses – it also shows double speak. Double speak is the fine art of:
“language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs) or deliberate ambiguity.”

Happy People
When I say ‘happy people’, I am referring to those that always have a smile on their face; they are always grinning from ear to ear. In the morning, afternoon, the night, during the cold winters, and the scorching heat – always smiling. What is up with that? Maybe I am just grumpy, but I feel some sort of hateration when I see these individuals; as I am secretly wishing to bask in what they are projecting. However, I take solace in the fact that what they are projecting is probably a mask to cover up something else, so I justify my hate, and I am content with that.

State of Man and Conflict, iTunery, protect the State

Not to go on a Tangent but …

Preamble: This is the most politco, socio, humano (humanist) rant yet; but I think I balance it from both sides, so take it in, let me know what you think.

Protests
In Toronto, the Tamil community of Sri Lanka descent have been very vocal about the 20+ year ongoing war going back home in the community; the war has claimed thousands of lives. I get that, and in Western democracies, we allow free protest on issues – as long as those issues don’t impede or jeopardize public safety. So, with that said, protesting on a busy downtown highway, threatening to march on the 401 (one of North America’s busiest highways), and strategically demonstrating during rush hours on busy downtown streets, do two things. First, it really does draw attention to your cause and concern – it definitely draws attention, kudos. However, and most importantly, secondly, it questions logic and foresight of your cause and realism. Take your cause to the Federal government; not the provincial government; if you are really serious about your cause, shut down a major transportation artery in Ottawa or rally on Parliament Hill, not the Gardner Expressway. And my next point, which is a sad state of our world society, well sad state of ‘nations'; the world community usually only intervenes in areas where there is a benefit to them. Meaning, that nations will only sacrifice the lives of their own soldiers if it will return a benefit for them – they will go into Iraq because of the vast resources of oil, but they won’t go into places like the Sudan where genocide is going on for years, because there is NO investment on their return. Put some natural gas or precious metals in Sri Lanka, and the International Community will be quick to intervene.

With that said, I am not saying don’t protest; speak your mind – but I hope the protesters understand the totality of the situation, and hopefully the totality that was expressed here is not the harsh truth.

iTunes manual sync
This is random, but I’m a go in anyway – on my iPod Touch, I download a lot of podcasts – just to explore the good and bad of the Internet. Now, when I download the podcasts through the iTunes store on my Touch through a wifi connection, its gravy, with biscuits. But, as soon as I do a MANUAL sync of my Touch with my computer, the downloaded podcasts are sometimes deleted (even though it is on MANUAL sync). Furthermore, the PC version of iTunes doesn’t even see the podcasts that I downloaded via wifi connection to my Touch! Come on iTunes team, test all possible conditions of your software please; as soon as you started locking these things down (remember with the old iPods, you could explore the folders on a PC/Mac) then you introduced a whole lot of problems.

Protecting the State
So the Obama administration in an attempt to make good on their campaign promises, somehow bring about the topic of prisoner abuse that occurred during the Bush Administration – I thought this was dealt with a few years ago, but that is besides the point. Now, they are attempting the block of releasing more pictures of the abuse that we all know happened; essentially trying to close Pandora’s box (that they themselves opened). In all this, Cheney has been very vocal in defending the tactics used; going on CNN, Fox, ABC, and a whole slew of news shows to reiterate the fact that the interrogation tactics work, and such tactics have prevented attacks. A side debate on all of this drama, is the argument that the Obama administration should not be releasing this information; as it will fuel further disdain for America across the world. Nothing good for the state can come about the further public exploration of this topic; it was already discussed a few years ago, and we know the ugly truth – we should learn from our mistakes and move on. For the Obama administration to berate the situation like beating a dead horse is asinine, and will not do anything to benefit the American people. Move on, and learn from the mistakes; but don’t further expose your state to public scrutiny that your enemies can use against you … Obama may need to read the book ‘The Art of War’ …

(tan)001 – 100 days, protocol, half-sick

Tangents: My favorite part of the day, as I gotta speak on all the cognitions running amuck in my head …

Half-Sick
Being half-sick is never fun; it is not the sickness that takes over your whole body, and causes you great discomfort or pain, but it still is a pain in the *ss. Been running around with some allergy-like symptoms: runny nose, scratchy throat – which all cause you to feel tired and drained of energy. And this can not come at a worst time when one is trying to meet so many deadlines. I got to rate my immune system somewhat – I never really get sick in the winter, but as soon as we start transitioning to spring, the pollen, the bees, the spring-like conditions, always get to me and I come down with something. Only in the recent years have I begun to even take allergy pills to combat it; but, rarely helps.

Protocol, protocol, protocol
Just found out that I owe a lot of money in overdue fees – $36 worth. That is not the shocking part (even though it is still shocking), but over a period of a month, I have been borrowing a book from my school’s library, and allegedly I have returned the book late, and every time it is late a $3.00/hour charge has been levied upon me – this must have happened over 5 times. My beef is, after the first offence, wouldn’t it make logical sense to say, “Hey, you have some outstanding fees on your card”, rather than let it get to $36? Well, safe to say, I will be fighting this, as the library staff should make people aware that they are racking up fines.

100 days
I guess these are some very important times, because every major newscast is planning a ‘special’ on the President’s first 100 days – CNN has stepped up to the plate with acquiring a lot of black journalists, Fox News is … well … is Fox News – they do what they do. Overall, he has hit the ground running hard, and has done the best he has with the cards dealt to him. Obama has had some faux pas: the joke about the special Olympics on Leno, flip-flopping on going after the Bush Administration on torture policies, and of course the ‘bow’ to a Saudi Prince, but in all, it is way too early to assess the effectiveness of his policy, let’s wait a year or so. I mean, based on how the nation feels about the last 8 years, anything Obama done will be praised as ‘much better’, that is why his approval rating is still so high, the honeymoon isn’t over.

No time handling hands for you – you are not equipped for time handling duties
Yes again, I am writing about time, not in trying to ‘find more time’, but to ‘manage time’. When people say, ‘Oh, I don’t have time’, that literally means they don’t want to do it – and I myself, was almost saying to a fellow peer of mines when he was trying to get me to do some Producer-esque tasks (when I wanted to do more technical ish), and I realized that it was a cop out. For instance, if he had said to me, “Ok, do these tasks, and I will pay you $10,000″, you best believe my tune would have jumped a few octaves and would not illicit a reluctant response. But I guess we all need to find our motivation, because it is the motivation that turns ‘time’ into a friend from a foe.

Lefties

I was watching President Obama sign a few executive orders this week, and noticed that he was left-handed. And then upon further research, some 5 out of the last 7 U.S. Presidents were lefties including Ford, Reagan, Father Bush, Clinton, Obama. The prevalence of left-handed people in the U.S. population hovers around 7 to 10 percent; so it is unique in a sense that more than 1/2 of the presidents in the last century have been left-handed. The cause of left-handedness can range from high levels of testosterone during pregnancy, genetics, and/or learned preference by observing which hand the child uses most often during infancy. In a historical sense, lefties were frowned upon by society, and were subjected to ridicule and hardships; currently in today’s society, most tools and products are oriented for a right-handed world. It has been well documented that in the early 20th century, many schools discouraged children from writing with their left hand; this may have lead to detrimental learning affects on the child’s development.

In terms of intelligence, a study out of the University College London argues that the proportion of left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. Chris McManus argues that left-handers’ brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain(1). This may explain why a good amount of academic achievers, entertainers, politicians, are left-handed, such as:

Abstract Art of President Obama

Yes, its good that I got to get used to saying ‘President Obama’, no more longer of this ‘President Elect’ stuff. Many people have been inspired regading Obama and the election, and the subsequent innaugaration. The message of hope & change has inspired many to create posters, flyers, and other artwork of Obama. Thus, I have compiled some examples of the best of the best:

Midnight Regulations

Added work from the Bush Administration

As if Obama doesn’t have enough to deal with: war in Iraq/Afghanistan, recession, eroding environment, and the Mideast now in chaos, the proponent for ‘change’ also will have to handle Midnight Regulations. Midnight regulations is a term for United States federal government regulations promulgated by executive branch agencies in the lame duck period of an outgoing President’s administration. Presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush have made the most extensive use of midnight regulations; as it allows an outgoing President to put through the motions of regulatory changes at any branch of the government, and since U.S. federal law mandates a 60-day waiting period before any major regulatory changes, the elected President will have to deal with any beauracies regarding the law. All accountability to either pass or renege the law lies now on the elected President, even though the outgoing president put the law in motion. Democratically speaking, this is a sneaky way for an outgoing President to try to pass all the laws that he/she couldn’t during their presidency.

Thus, some Presidents try to publish new major regulations on November 21, 60 days before the new President’s inauguration on January 20. “Minor” regulations, those that have less than US$100 million in effect on the economy or do not have major social policy significance, have a similar 30-day waiting period

Already, it has been reported that the Bush Administration is feverently midnight regulating, touching everything from business practices, to removing environmental emissions caps for businesses, and even touching sensitive topics like Abortion. With the thought of Midnight regulations at the back of his mind, it is no wonder he has hit the ground running trying to deal with the Auto bailout, and stimulus packages, because come January 20, 2009, the weight of the world is on his shoulders.

Let’s hope this effect is something of the past ….

The Bradley effect is named after former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who ran for California governor in 1982. Exit polls showed Bradley leading by a wide margin, and the Democrat confidentially thought it would be an early election night. But Bradley and the polls were wrong. He lost to Republican George Deukmejian. The theory was that polling was wrong because some voters, who did not want to appear bigoted, said they voted for Bradley even though they did not. “People will usually tell you how they voted after the election, but we found in the Bradley campaign … that people were actually not telling us who they voted for,” said Charles Henry, who researched Bradley’s election.

I hope for the best, but I always had this thought in the back of my mind – let’s pray that I am wrong and that America has changed, yes they are still a few of those Americans that think that Obama is a Arab & a Terrorist, but they all watch Fox News …. and their viewership is decreasing day by day.

This is an interesting video, or a collage of images/videos with an audio track layed over it from a NYC based white Jewish rapper, E-Shy goes in on Obama’s policies, Obama’s deflection from the issues, and makes a strong argument to why he shouldn’t be president. Of course, like all rappers, E-Shy attacks Obama’s manhood, and even goes after Michelle Obama. Its good to see hip-hop getting political again.

Nas delivers Fox News a message to their headquarters. The message is a petitions signed by over 600, 000 people claiming that Fox News spews propaganda and has been racist to the Obama family and to African Americans. The prime target in this speech by Nas is that of popular Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly; O’Reilly and Nas had some beef before as O’Reilly got Nas barred from performing at a Virgina Tech memorial concert a few years ago – inciting that Nas was a ‘gangsta rapper’. So I am sure Nas jumped at the opportunity to stick it to O’Reilly.

Nas also disses Fox News and O’Reilly on his latest album ‘Untitled’ with the song ‘Sly Fox’

What is more alarming than Fox News, Bill O’Reilly, and the rest of the ‘reporters’ they have, is the fact that Fox News have a huge following, so Fox is effectively ‘supplying’ a ‘demand’. And if the ‘demand’ knows that the supply is fulled with hate/racist attitudes, then the ‘demand’ group really needs to be looked at it – and feared.

I’m all for the notion that it would be ‘nice’ to finally have a black U.S. President. To even be talking about a black U.S. president shows that society has grown enormously in the past 50 years; because not so long ago, blacks were still being lynched and according to funnyman Kramer “stuck with pitch forks up their asses”. It is quite amazing actually when you really think about it. However, Obama seems to have a very legitimate chance of getting the U.S. Democratic nomination for the 2008 election, and then, he may have a chance to get into the White House.

No more rudimentary jokes about a black president can be made, however, I feel that one must ask the question, what will really change if there is a black president? Really? Will all the ghetto black youths suddenly move to the suburbs, causing the white kids to move to farm lands? Will there be more social programs? Social welfare assistance? I hear a lot of talk that if elected, a black president will ‘look’ out for black people, but I find a fallacy in such logic. If Obama gets in, doesn’t mean that the current socio-economic status of black americans will change; one thing that we gotta understand is that even if the president is Black, the Senate still is predominately white – correlating that the senate actually passes any bills and/or spending. Further, any president has to ‘play’ to his party and their ideals; thus if one’s party is still predominately white, the likelihood that a dramatic bill will be passed that will ‘magically’ elevate the socio-economic status of blacks is bleak.

So unfortunately, I remain pessimistic that a black president will have any strong effect – except for the symbolism aspect that society has changed dramatically, but as the saying says:“The more things change, the more they stay the same”